Can Vitamin D Help Prevent Overweight Toddlers?

Results of a new study suggest that vitamin D supplements may do more than help infants and toddlers develop strong bones. Now experts have found that vitamin D may help prevent overweight toddlers, an important discovery given the increasing rate of obesity.

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Previous research has suggested that vitamin D can play a role in helping with weight loss. More specifically, overweight and obese individuals who were vitamin D deficient lost more weight and inches on a low-calorie diet and vitamin D supplement plan than their peers who didn’t take the vitamin.

Now a team from McGill University has found that vitamin D supplementation during the first year of life may result in children having less body fat and more muscle mass as toddlers. The finding was a surprise, since the researchers had set out to evaluate the importance of the nutrient for bone density.

When the investigators were using body scans to measure bone density, they found it was also possible to assess the children’s fat and muscle mass. That discovery lead to the first time investigators have linked the presence of a healthy vitamin D status during the first three years of a child’s life and the development of muscle mass.

The data were collected from a long-term follow-up of a study of vitamin D supplementation in which infants were given one of four different dosages (400, 800, 1,200, or 1,600 International Units) between 1 and 12 months of age. The authors discovered that:

Body composition of the children at 36 months was similar regardless of which dose of vitamin D had been given during the first year of life

However, children who had vitamin D levels greater than the threshold set by the Canadian Paediatric Society (>75-80 nmol/L) averaged approximately 450 grams less body fat at age 36 months

Children who were more physically active (as rated by their parents) also were leaner than less active children

The authors concluded that their study “demonstrates higher vitamin D status and physical activity levels associate with leaner body composition in 3-year-old children.” Parents should talk to their pediatrician about their infants' and toddlers' intake of vitamin D intake not only for bone health but for helping prevent overweight children.

All diet plans work for the short term. The weight loss achieved in a few weeks is proportional to the calorie restriction imposed. That's the good news. The bad news, which is recalled in Michel Desmurget's book, "The Antiregime," is that "out of 100 individuals who followed a restrictive diet, 95 regain all the weight lost in less than two to five years." Michel Desmurget is a doctor of neuroscience and someone who formerly suffered from obesity.

According to a recent US study, published in the journal Diabetes Therapy, the ketogenic diet, which favors glucose-based fat, could reverse Type 2 Diabetes if it is accompanied by daily monitoring. Type 2 diabetes occurs in adults and affects mostly obese or overweight people.